Mobile communication networks for mobile terminals such as cellular telephones are capable of obtaining the current position of a mobile communication terminal. In recent years, various types of systems for performing information providing services using location information obtained by such mobile communication networks have been proposed. For example with PHS (Personal Handy-phone System) networks, it is possible to determine within which base station wireless zone a mobile communication terminal is currently used, and a system for providing a position tracking service using this location information is known.
Also, a system wherein a GPS (Global Positioning System) is installed for mobile communication terminals and location information obtained by the GPS is used for a service has also been proposed.
The obtained location information of the mobile communication terminal differs in representational format according to the position detection method employed by the mobile communication network. For example, with a PHS network, the location information is identification information (hereafter referred to as “base station ID”) for identifying base stations managing wireless zones where mobile communication terminals are used, and with GPS, the location information is in the format of latitude and longitude, obtained by measuring the positions of mobile communication terminals.
On the other hand, the representational format for the desired location information, the precision thereof, and communication protocol differ between the computer systems which use such location information and provide various types of services.
For example, there may be cases wherein handling of the location information in the latitude-and-longitude representational format is desired by the computer system application, or there may be cases wherein obtaining the location information in the representational format corresponding to administrative district is desired. Also, for example, computer systems which provide position tracking services require relatively high-precision location information, but computer systems which provide weather forecast information at the location of where the mobile communication terminal require only relatively low-precision location information. Further, even in the event that the representational format of the location information is the same for the mobile communication terminal side and the computer system side, the method for obtaining the location information by the computer systems differs according to the communication protocol which the application of the computer system supports.
Thus, as long as the representational formats and communication protocols for location information differ according to the mobile communication network and the computer using the location information, services dealing with network integration, which have been rapidly progressing in recent years, cannot be provided.